2.10.2005

Vindications on the Rights of Bloggers

I'm not going to rehash the whole GannonGate saga here, because no one could touch the documentation at AmericaBlog.com and the Daily Kos. What I do want to say is that it is history in the making and "I told you so!". This was a spectacular bit of investigative reporting by a loosely organized group of Lefty bloggers and their readers. Populism meets the Press and we are it. The shift has begun. The MSM is having fits at the success of this investigation, which involves male prostitution, access to the President, the defeat of Minority Leader Tom Daschle, and the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

I haven't heard any of the Fourth Estate admit that they should have caught on to this long ago. I have heard them complain that the liberal bloggers "crossed the line". How consulting public records for domain registration information crosses any lines is a mystery to me. Anyone can do it. The information was right there, people. It just took people taking the time to connect the dots. In this case, the dots lead right back to Texas. Imagine my surprise.

The MSM is claiming that people are attacking Gannon/Guckert's personal life. On the contrary! They are attacking his hypocrisy. Gay-baiting might have earned Bush the love of the bigoted and uneducated in this country, but it also pissed of some really smart people. Smart enough to do a "Whois" search. Smart enough to "google" a name. Smart enough to know a shill when we see one. Smart enough to figure out that a guy using a fake name, with possible ties to illegal activities, shouldn't have direct access to the President or to classified CIA documents.

Rove and his buddies don't understand how this stuff works yet, so they're clumsy about covering their tracks. That won't last, of course. We saw how much more sophisticated the theft of the 2004 election was than the 2000 debacle. They learn from their mistakes. They're just starting to realize how much the game has changed.

I say now is the time to make the most of the technical advantage we have. Now is the time to "out" the family values crowd for who they truly are. It won't be pretty. It will probably get ugly. It has to be done, and only the blogosphere is in a position to do it.

We have a moral imperative to educate the American people in ways our schools have failed to do. Did you know the White House history pages now refer to Jefferson, Madison, et al as Republicans?! We have to stand up for the Ward Churchill's, who may be hard to deal with (genocide will do that), but must be free to speak and to teach their truths. We have to make the Right see who they really are. The days of "Do as I say, not as I do" are officially over for the Republican party. As Eason recently pointed out, there are a million little cameras and tape recorders out here, watching everything they do.